Australian Sport: Six Megatrends

Stefan Hajkowicz opened the workshop with a presentation of six megatrends in sport in Australia. These were:

From extreme to mainstream (the rise of lifestyle sports)

New wealth, new talent (economic growth and sports development in Asia)

Everybody’s game (demographic, generational and cultural change)

More than sport (attainment of health, community and overseas aid objectives through sport)

A perfect fit (personalised sport and tailored training systems)

Tracksuits to business suits (market pressures and new business models)

These megatrends were discussed during the workshop and delegates came up with important issues within these megatrends. A key tool for this eliciting of issues was the use of conversational maps.

The day concluded with a discussion of some of the policy implications of the issues identified.

By coincidence yesterday I heard a replay of a Richard Gill talk about the classical music scene in Australia. The trail for it was:

Opera and orchestras in Australia are losing contemporary audiences. Opera Australias artistic director has warned the industry must change or die. So what is the future of opera and orchestras in Australia? Should they change? And how can more young Australians be exposed to classical music?

It struck me at the end of my day at the workshop that we need to extend our discussions across all the performing arts to explore and develop strategic responses to megatrends.